


Egg

by Spoon888



Category: Transformers - All Media Types
Genre: Egg Laying, M/M, Mech Preg, Megatron's Not Much Better But He's Trying, Seekers Are Bad Parents, Single Dad Megatron, Sparklings, Temporary Child Abandonment, Whose Baby Is This?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-09
Updated: 2019-01-09
Packaged: 2019-10-07 08:09:12
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,572
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17362241
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Spoon888/pseuds/Spoon888
Summary: Megatron has one (1) egg and no idea what to do with it.Deadbeat seekers don't help the situation either.





	Egg

Megatron tripped over it when he woke that morning.

Fortunately, the metal shell of whatever _it_ was turned out to be made of sturdier material than could be found on most blast-proof doors. The only damage done was that to his pede.

Once he was done hopping on the spot and seething from the pain of the dent, he realised what exactly it was that had been inconveniently left in the centre of his flooring.

An egg.

A Cybertronian egg, obviously, about the size of his clenched fist. Honeycomb patterned matt grey with black ridges. It sat immobile on his floor; no nest, no carrier. Megatron did a panicked pirouette in his search for the culprit responsible, but the room was empty.

For a brief bizarre moment he even wondered if _he_ had laid it?!

No, he would have remembered waking in the night to drop that.

The oddness of the situation didn't improve with his increasing self-awareness. He was always groggy in the morning -it was taking his processor longer and longer to turn back on again after a recharge the older he got- but for once he had reason to be.

"Where have you come from?" He asked the egg, reaching down and gently -unsure of the pressure to use- lifting it.

It was warm, the same temperature as any fully grown mech's frame, and seemed to pulse with spark energy. Megatron brought it to his audial, listening to the soft fluttering sounds inside. It's pulse seemed fast, but was that typical of unhatched eggs?

Yet more concerning was the near identical match the armour of his digits were to the egg's shell. He wracked his processor for other potential culprits, but knew that this being left in his quarters wasn't going to be a coincidence.

Still, if it _was_ his, he was only the sire, and in no way equipped for brooding it.

"Let's find your irresponsible carrier, shall we?" He told it, cupping it between both servos, hoping that would be enough to keep it warm. "I have a few suspects in mind..."

 

* * *

 

He consulted his mental list.

Starscream would have dumped an egg on him with no explanation or warning out of simple spite. Skywarp was immature, and often seemed to struggle under the stress of responsibility, so it wasn't out of character for it to have been him either.

Thundercracker, though neither spiteful nor immature, was also sometimes a bit odd, and the last of the three Megatron could recall taking to his berth in recent weeks, so he wasn't off the hook either.

Megatron studied the egg more carefully as he walked, swiping a thumb across the raised ridges. Black and grey and not a hint of anything more colourful. The black was a shade he shared with Skywarp though, so perhaps...

"What a puzzle." He murmured, despairing of his own inability to commit to any single berth-partner. And his penchant for seekers here seemed to be his own undoing. _Soundwave_ would never have abandoned an egg in his quarters, even if he had been the mech irresponsible enough to fertilise it.

The egg seemed to vibrate with every other step he took, so he increased his pace, fuel pump picking up speed with his anxious worry that the thing was going to try and hatch in his very servos, and though he didn't know much about rearing offspring, he knew the first face a sparkling saw was the face it imprinted on.

And that could not happen. It was carriers duty to fawn over and care for young.

He strode into the mess at speed and came to an abrupt stop when a hall full of faces turned to stare at him curiously. He closed his servos over the egg to hide it from view. He couldn't have them thinking _he'd_ laid it.

He spied his suspects at a table beside the dispenser -the best and most coveted position in the mess- and straightened his back to continue his march.

"You three." He demanded their attention in his most menacingly voice. "Get up and follow me."

Neither of them looked particularly surprised, but they didn't seem inclined to give anything away either. He watched their shared looks carefully, trying to spy a guilty culprit among them, but they remained stoic, communicating through subtle glances and wing movements alone. Slippery fiends.

They followed him out of the mess single file.

Skywarp opened his mouth first, "Is this about the-?"

"Shh!" Thundercracker and Starscream silenced him furiously.

Megatron observed them over his shoulder. Skywarp amused, Thundercracker worried, and Starscream annoyed. It was almost like they'd _all_ done it.

But three seekers couldn't all be responsible for one egg, certainly not if it really did belong to Megatron on the sire's half of the coding.

He led them away from the high traffic areas, looking for someone private for when he inevitably lost his temper and began shouting at them. They passed through the most derelict part of the base, where the worst of the water damage was. Sea water dripped from the ceiling and Starscream hissed furiously when Skywarp caught some in his servo and flicked it at him.

"Enough!" Megatron barked at them, and Skywarp's wings flopped as low as the corners of his mouth had. Megatron disregarded a jolt of regret at earning such a downtrodden reaction out of him, reminding himself to be stern and strict, even with Skywarp.

He stood beside a door and nodded for them to get in there. It was one of the old training rooms, empty and spacious so he'd have plenty of room to pace angrily.

They trudged in dejectedly, Starscream pulling faces, Skywarp rolling his optics, Thundercracker frowning petulantly like a sulky adolescent being held responsible for something he hadn't done. Megatron wasn't ready to dismiss any of them as the culprit yet.

He slammed the broken automatic door behind him, juggling the egg between his servos when he struggled to find the manual switch to turn on the lights. When he did, they flickered online ominously, blinking and buzzing like they would fade to black any moment. That, along with the sounds of dripping water and old metal creaking under the weight of the ocean, made the atmosphere feel a lot like they were all about to take part in a real life horror film.

Starscream sighed loudly. "So, _this_ where you're going to dispose of our bodies."

"That remains to be seen." Megatron growled, moving around to stand in front of the three devious troublemakers. He revealed the egg and thrust it out in front of him. The seekers veered back as though it was radioactive, brows raising in an unconvincing display of surprise.

"What. Is _this?_ " He demanded.

"Uh, It's an egg?" Skywarp smirked stupidly, "It's what happens when you go around 'facing anything that moves."

Megatron stared at Skywarp, unable to quite believe he was hearing _sass_ , from _Skywarp_ of all mechs.

"You." He growled.

Skywarp threw up his servos. "No way! It's not mine."

"It's one of yours!" Megatron barked, moving his pointed digit between all three of them. They cringed away, fearful of it landing on them and condemning them to parenthood. "Which one of you snuck this into my quarters last night?"

The three of them looked at each other, but he couldn't tell if there was any unspoken communication between them.

"Look at me." He snapped.

They did, blinking innocently.

Megatron turned on the ring leader, literally, giving Starscream as stern a look as he could muster.

With a disgusted sneer Starscream looked away, "I've never seen that thing in my life!"

"Thundercracker." Megatron snapped his helm to the left. Thundercracker just stared at him with wide silent optics.

"Alright, enough of this witch hunt." Starscream interrupted, "The only thing you know for sure about that egg is that it's _yours_ -"

Megatron's nostrils flared. "I-"

"Then congratulations!" Starscream yelled, throwing his arms up. "You're a sire. Can we _go_ now?"

Megatron looked between the unclaimed egg and the completely unbothered, unrepentant seekers. "It needs it's carrier..."

"Too bad you don't know who that is then, huh?" Skywarp huffed into his folded arms.

Thundercracker said nothing. Skywarp nudged him.

"...Yeah." He said after a long delay.

Megatron squinted at him.

"Well, good luck!" Skywarp piped up suddenly, taking Thundercracker by the shoulder and shoving him behind him, like he couldn't trust his trine-mate not to spill the energon. Megatron loomed over him, trying to catch Thundercracker's optics again and put the fear of the Unmaker into him.

"Shouldn't you get that egg of yours some insulation," Starscream came to his trine-mate's rescue, sticking his olfactory in and peering at the egg with faux concern. "Don't want it freezing now, do you? Look, it's already shaking."

Megatron looked at the egg in his palm, which was indeed still vibrating. From cold he now realised. The seekers were already throwing excuses at him as they fled out the door, but Megatron wasn't listening, cupping his egg closer and opening his vents to expel heat over it.

He needed to have some idea of what to do with this egg or he was going to end up killing his own unhatched sparkling before he ever even had the chance to learn who it's carrier was. And punish them appropriately.

 

* * *

 

He needed to assess the evidence. 

Thundercracker had been his most recent, and therefore best remembered.

He wasn't a mech easy to lure into berth (or supply closets or dark corridors) and from what intelligence Megatron could gather, he wasn't the only interested party that had such a problem. Thundercracker wasn't as free and easy with pleasure as the rest of his trine, but something about the difficulty of charming him had always peeked Megatron's interest.

Despite wide opinion, Thundercracker wasn't a prude, nor was he cold and aloft. The hard shell of a warrior hid a softness, a genuineness, that was hard to come by so late into war. Megatron glimpsed brief flashes of it from afar; the smiles at Skywarp's jokes, the open worry over Starscream's antics. Something about it built a sense of longing in Megatron's battered old spark- a feeling, a _hope_ he hadn't known he still had. That there could be something _more_ to this life than an endless war. 

Kissing him in the throne room had been a gamble, it was open and dark and cold, and Thundercracker had struggled to meet his gaze during the stunted flirting before. But lips met and Megatron wasn't pushed away, and when he drew back for breath, Thundercracker followed him into the throne, sinking into his lap with a sensuality only a seeker could possess.

And when all was said and done, Thundercracker again set himself apart with a gracious thanks, and a heap load of excuses.

"It was great, great," he'd nodded, fidgeting, stumbling backwards down the steps leading to the throne one at a time, still a little bowlegged. "I just, I can't really, and, it's not you, I-"

Megatron had held up an understanding servo. "No offence taken."

Thundercracker dipped into a bow he clearly felt awkward about, blushed, then rambled something about being late.

Megatron had watched him go, oddly fond.

Thundercracker had plenty good enough a reason to hide a sparkling from him -the idea of commitment likely the least of them- but Megatron just couldn't see him concocting such a deception. If it _had_ been him, no doubt he was being led astray by bad influences.

And he could very well guess who _that_ was.

 

* * *

 

For a mech who'd sparked and bourn so many new-sparks himself, Soundwave didn't appear at all pleased to find himself being used as a temporary warming oven for his commander's unclaimed egg. It fit inside his chest perfectly, and naturally spark-produced heat was the perfect condition for it.

"Suggestion," Soundwave began, in a tone that implied it wasn't really going to be a suggestion at all.

Megatron held up his servo, digit swiping through the data on his screen frantically. "Not _now_ , Soundwave. There must be something in here about testing pre-hatched coding. Perhaps with a scanner..."

He glanced at his Third for help, but Soundwave had fallen petulantly silent.

Megatron, in his frustration, then glitched the sensitive touch-screen by stabbing at it too hard. Losing the ability to cope, he picked it up and smashed it.

There was a long pause.

"Suggestion."

"What?!" Megatron bellowed.

Soundwave was undeterred. "Care for the egg until coding test is possible. Incubation is a simple process."

"You would say that." Megatron eyed his Third's chest compartment, where his egg was currently nestled.

The compartment in question opened with a click and Soundwave was reaching inside, his patience clearly exhausted.

Megatron clenched and released his fists to keep himself from turning around and punching the bulkhead. "I don't know how," he admitted.

"Blankets." Soundwave advised, passing the soothingly warm egg into his servos, and then guiding Megatron to hold it closer than at arms-length. "Frame-produced heat."

Megatron begrudgingly did as he was told.

 

* * *

 

Skywarp had been his most frequent. Loyal and eager to please, there was little Megatron didn't like about him, both in and out of the berth. They'd been together so many times now that Megatron couldn't really distinguish between the night that marked him as a suspect and all the others. It had either been that completely unplanned collision in the wash-racks, or that post-patrol romp in the air-hanger, when Skywarp had been warm all the way up to the tips of his wings and reeking of ozone.

He'd taken Skywarp against the bulkhead, half hidden from security cams by empty packing crates. Skywarp had hooked a leg over his hip, his searingly hot thruster burning a scorch into the back of his thigh, and whispered the filthiest of promises. He'd sunk his digits into seams above Megatron's hips, closed his mouth over the buttons and switches below his chest and sucked, opened himself up and begged for the worst.

And Megatron remembered the lopsided, goofy little smile on Skywarp's face when they'd finished, his favourite solider fragged into a loopy mess.

"Jus' doing my duty," he'd fluttered with pride when Megatron thanked him, sauntering off, limp well hidden and wings dancing, like he wanted Megatron to chase him down and do it all again.

If it was a simple matter of chance and statistics, Megatron would have picked Skywarp.

 

* * *

 

Megatron placed the egg in his berth, opening his vents to warm the insulation sheets and tucking them securely around his unhatched offspring to keep the residual warmth. He considered the little lump the egg made hidden under the covers, before going to one of the storage crates to retrieve another thicker sheet. After laying that down too, he nodded, satisfied.

Now for his regularly scheduled duties.

He made it to the door of his quarters before a sudden thought popped into his helm. He went back to check on the egg, folding away the covers and touching it to ensure it was still warm. It was, and at his touch spark energy inside pulsed happily.

He tucked the sheets around it again and moved towards the door. Then thought, rather anxiously, what if he hadn't secured it properly? He headed back to the berth, strides quick.

The lump in the berth was undisturbed. It looked perfectly fine.

But under all those sheets, how could he be sure?

He folded them away again to reveal the egg right where he had left it, as warm and immaculate as before.

He laid the sheets down again, and didn't even get as far as turning around before his chest ached longingly again.

With a curse on every damnable seeker he had ever laid optics on, he threw back the covers and climbed in alongside it, sending off a comm message to Soundwave that he wouldn't be making it to his throne after all. His lieutenant was intelligent enough not to ask why.

"Blasted egg," he complained, rolling it across the padding until it rested against his chest, where his armour was warmest. "Just you wait till I catch your carrier..."

 

* * *

 

Starscream... was difficult to explain.

Nights together were far between, but they had known one another for so long now Megatron was sure he'd been with him more than he had anyone else. Ever.

Megatron wasn't naive enough to let himself think it was really about 'facing anymore. There was a familiarity to it, an odd sort of comfort. When things were at their very worst, when their morale was at it's lowest, the death toll at it's highest, Starscream would come to him, often boldly slipping under the covers of his berth and into his arms without a word.

It was always a tentative affair, which probably wasn't something anyone would expect from Starscream. He would yield laid in Megatron's berth in a way he never would kneeling before the throne. He was quiet, he was affectionate, and something about the way those sharp, clever optics met Megatron's made his chest burn.

Starscream swept himself from his grasp and the covers as soon as it was done, leaving as silently as he had arrived. Megatron never stopped him to ask why.

  
He didn't think it had been Starscream.

But he resented that irritatingly logical voice that told him he was in denial.

 

* * *

 

The egg, miraculously, survived. Incubation took longer for seekers than it did most other frame-types, and the speed of this ones development indicated that it wasn't, to Megatron's relief, a seekerlet.

Megatron wondered if it's carrier had somehow _known_ , and if that was why they'd abandoned it to a clueless sire? None of his elite-trine showed interest in it's development, no matter how often Megatron tried to shove it under one of their olfactories. He wondered if there might have been a reaction if one cycle he'd just strolled up to their little gaggle and callously told them it had died.

The only interest any of them had showed so far was when Skywarp handed over a data-slug and dismissively asked if 'it had hatched yet'. Megatron's attempts at prolonging the conversation and imploring Skywarp to view the make-shift incubator he'd built in his desk draw were ignored. Skywarp teleported away in a flash.

Megatron ignored the rising indignation, glancing at his open draw and reassuring the egg that _he_ at least, thought it had made commendable progress in the last few weeks. They both had.

And there wasn't much longer now.

From Soundwave's estimations and the rapid movement detected within the shell, the sparkling was likely to hatch anywhere in the next cycle. The ridges that held the strong armour plates together had begun to widen, almost separating, and it was through the collapse of that structure that the sparkling inside would break it's way to freedom. The hatching itself could take any number of hours, so Megatron filled up a cube and readied himself for a rechargeless, anxious night.

He entertained himself with reading, occasionally doing so out loud for the sparkling's benefit, because somehow, impossibly, he'd become attached to this immobile, silent thing. He wondered if this was what it was like for those that owned a pet rock?

The egg in the berth beside him shuddered, almost as though the sparkling inside resented his less than fatherly thoughts.

Megatron resisted the urge to apoligise to it, wondering when exactly in this process he had completely lost his mind.

But then the egg shuddered again, and a crack sounded. Megatron sat upright, reaching for the light switch to see better. One of the armour panels was breaking away from the ridges, rising up and down like a live, breathing thing. Tentatively, Megatron lifted it, breaking it away.

Underneath something uncurled, and after a moment of nervous horror, Megatron realised it wasn't some hideous deep space tentacle monster, but the tiny arm of a sparkling, damp with insulation fluids.

Another panel broke away, more enthusiastically this time, a leg kicking out and smashing it's way free. Megatron found himself smiling, watching as the egg wobbled and shook and came apart before his very optics to reveal a perfect reflection of himself, from helm shape, to torso, to strong black (fat) servos.

Free of her prison and squirming on the berth, Megatron picked her up, plucking away the odd piece of shell still stuck to her armour. He held her under the arms, letting stumpy legs dangle, but no matter how hard he looked he couldn't find a trace of 'seeker' anywhere in her features.

"The mystery continues." He told her, still smiling when she reached to touch his olfactory, her optics opening and closing one at a time. She made an inquisitive noise at him, probably wondering what the pit was going on.

"Come... Egg," he told her, bringing her to his chest, "Let's find you some fuel."

 

* * *

 

  
"What do you mean 'no'?" Megatron growled, covering his daughter's tiny audials so she wouldn't have to hear her sire lose his temper so early in life. "She's hatched, isn't she? What could possibly prevent you now?"

"She's too small." Hook folded his arms. "And this isn't a family clinic. I don't have equipment compatible with sparklings-"

"You do for minibots."

"She's _one twentieth_ the size of a mini-bot." Hook stood his ground. "Besides, do you really want her to suffer invasive coding testing on her first day online?"

"She doesn't have a _carrier_ ," Megatron reminded him, his frustration over the situation doubling now that it was less about him trying to dodge responsibility and more about how his daughter _deserved_ a carrier.

"She has you, doesn't she?" Hook reminded him.

Egg squeaked, and Megatron's undoing was looking down to meet her curious optics. She smiled goofily at him. He lowered his servos from her audials, spark warming.

"She does."

 

* * *

 

He should probably think of a designation. It was one thing to think of her privately as Egg, and a whole other therapy-worthy thing to start calling her it audibly. He thought about her carrier (whichever blasted idiot it was) and what they would think of they heard him calling her that.

Then he thought perhaps it didn't matter what they thought.

She was _his_ daughter.

He smiled at her proudly where she was dangling over his arm, drooling a little, but that was to be expected. "You don't mind being addressed as Egg, do you?"

Egg wriggled, happy to hear his voice.

"I thought not." 

 

* * *

 

He didn't bother to inform his elite-trine. They would hear of Egg's hatching soon enough, and if they deigned to grace her with their presence? Megatron would tell them to shove it up their exhaust pipes.

She was a pleasant sparkling to have around. Quiet but curious, active but not bothersome. She'd sit on the wide armrest of his throne and poke at his digits, and often he'd reward her with a scratch behind the audials. Sparklings liked to be petted, he recalled. It was something they had in common with symbiote drones and pets.

It wasn't until the elite-trine were called before him for a private pre-mission brief days later, that the potential-carriers finally set optics on their potential-daughter. Thundercracker's pace faltered. Skywarp's wings shot high in interest. Starscream didn't react at all, his optics hard and emotionless.

Megatron felt his spark clench and shrink, as _finally_ he knew which of them it had been. Though part of him felt like he had known all along...

"Thundercracker, Skywarp," he nodded to the seekers, "You're dismissed."

They cast their trine-leader worried looks, but Starscream's gaze was fixed to the floor, his servos having rolled into fists as he was singled out.

Megatron observed him thoughtfully, murmuring a nonsensical reassurance to his sparkling when she squealed and wriggled. One of Starscream's wings twitched at the noise, but it was obvious he wasn't ready to come out with any confessions just yet.

Megatron wondered how best to weedle it out of him.

Eventually he stood, taking Egg in servo. She laughed joyfully, legs kicking together where they dangled. At the noise Starscream did look up, briefly, then scowled at the floor again.

"That isn't how you hold a sparkling." He said.

"I don't require your input on how to raise my daughter." Megatron reminded him hauntingly, goading. "I suppose you'd like to hold her-"

"No." Starscream said sharply.

"-Look at her, at least?"

"I'm not interested."

Megatron's pride over his daughter was warring against his concern for Starscream's obvious reluctance. A mech of greater conviction might have cut his losses and decided they were better off without a carrier that didn't care. Perhaps he was weak for wanting to give Starscream a chance. Perhaps he was selfish for wanting his daughter to have a carrier.

He sighed at Starscream's downwards scowl, adjusting his wriggling daughter against his chest when he moved away. "Come along Egg, he's not interested-"

" _Egg_?"

Megatron turned back, just in time to see Starscream's optics snap back to the ground.

Megatron tilted his helm, "Sorry?"

"...Apologies, _sir_." Starscream muttered, "I misheard. I almost believed I'd just heard you call your daughter  _Egg_."

Megatron's processor ticked over at the harsh, disapproving edge to Starscream's tone.

 _Gotcha_.

"Why, yes I did." He said proudly, "Egg. She appears to like it."

Egg giggled to prove him right.

Starscream made a noise of disgust, looking up then down again, torn between avoiding his leader's gaze and wanting to flash him a dirty look. "You can't call her egg-"

"She's my daughter. I'll call her whatever I wish."

Starscream opened his mouth, then shut it again. "...it's hardly dignified."

"As her sire, I can make that decision myself. Perhaps if she _had_ a carrier, someone authorised to have an opinion..."

Starscream was visibly struggling. He must have known by now that he'd been caught, and that this was all an obvious attempt at baiting him.

Finally he looked up, optics as cold as steel. "You're not calling her _Egg_ , Megatron."

Megatron shifted his daughter onto his shoulder, keeping her out of the firing line as he leaned in close to Starscream's scrunched up, indignant face. "Who are you to criticise my choice in name?"

From such close proximity he could see the jump in Starscream's throat cables, the clenching of gears in his jaw. Unable to hold his gaze, Starscream's optics flicked to Megatron's shoulder where Egg was kicking excitedly. He reset them, and reset again before shuttering them and clenching and-

"Just-!" He shook his helm in frustration, servos thrusting forward, "Give me my daughter!"

Sharp claws were grabbing for her, and unwilling for her to be injured because Starscream couldn't cope with his own emotions, Megatron brushed them aside, lifting his daughter himself and easing her into Starscream's arms.

Blue servos curled around her protectively, Starscream clutching her to his chest. She squealed, delighted to explore someone new. 

Megatron felt an indescribable emotion well up in him as he watched.

"Ignoring a problem doesn't make it go away, Starscream." He said, as soft as he could manage. "Certainly not when that problem is a sparkling."

Starscream didn't answer, his helm lifting to peer at his daughter thoughtfully.

"You're not called egg." He told her, very seriously.

Megatron rolled his optics, wondering what extravagantly awful designation Starscream was going to give her in it's place.

 


End file.
